Club Monthly 20150 March 2013 – Science Edition

Solving Time: I found this hard and it took me something like 1 1/2 hours, off and on over a few days. However the last half came in something of a rush so maybe it was me rather than the crossword, which as ever is an absolute model of inventive and scrupulously correct clueing. No tired cricketing references here; instead we have infotech, sigmatrons and scientific geniuses such as Antoine Lavoisier. Good stuff!

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as *(–)

Across
1 trot-cozy – red = TROT + unknown Z in company = COY. The trot-cozy appears to be an invention of Sir Walter Scott’s, according to Chambers and the OED, hence the “author’s version” in the clue
5 stramp – drive = RAM in ST + P
9 storm jib – *(J + RIBS + TOM). Storm jibs familiar from the (wonderful) Hornblower books, amongst other places..
10 pulver – sweater = PUL(LO)VER. Pulver is rightly said to be “no longer in use” since it is not in the ODO, and the OED says “obs., rare” and has just one example, from c1425 as follows: “In รพe best lumbardez ynk be dissolued..gumme arabic, which dissolued, putte in..anteros ypoquistidos subtily puluered and sarced.” Rare indeed!
12 gravel-voices – fity five = LV in solemn – GRAVE + O + ICED, an Americanism (and one of many) for killed.
15 apiol – every year = PA rev., + IOL which in a way I suppose is the same as 10l. Who knew how useful parsley seeds are? apparently it is, or at least was once, a useful treatment for “intermittent fever.”
16 rex rabbit – “sometime religious teacher” = EX RABBI in right = RT. All the first phrase is the def. A google image search brings an eclectic result
18 sigmatron – something heaved mostly = SIG(H) + MATRON = nurse. A neat but difficult clue! The sigmatron is mentioned in Chambers, but it is not in the OED or in Wikipedia and I am not totally convinced such a machine actually exists, outside of the James Bond films
19 lyart – sTRAY Leaping rev.
20 vitro-di-trina – little girl = VI + walked = TROD + IN in ART + I rev. Literally, Italian for “glass-of-lace.” Never heard of it but I had heard of vitro (as in “in-vitro” fertilization) and treen (which is in fact a completely unrelated word), so put it in quite happily..
24 rootle – “route’ll” – I was startled to see on the crossword club website that this clue caused problems, it is a homophone, simple always provided of course that you have heard of the word you are looking for! I had, and moreover it is a lovely word, ne c’est pa?
25 infotech – *(ETC IF ON) + H. Unlike the last, an ugly word. Is “courses” OK as an anagrist? The ridiculous insert in the current edition of Chambers does not (once again) list it. I am tempted to cut the whole thing out with a knife.. what a pig’s ear the latest edition is!
26 emmove – musicians first = the letter M = EM + (a) second = MO + V(ERS)E. anyone know what the “without” is doing, here? On edit: see third comment below, for a much better parsing of the clue..
27 Isengrim – exists = IS + in, French = EN + GRIM(M). Like Reynard the fox, Isengrim is an old, old creature which pops up here and again in literature
Down
1 tost – health drink = TO(A)ST, an archaism for “tossed.”
2 obol – tOmBs OnLy. An obol was a Greek coin, originally a metal rod in fact.
3 camarilla – about = CA + old lady = MA + improperly = ILL in artist = RA. Not such an obscure word as one might think, I came across it only a few days ago
4 zeitvertreib – E(MERALD) in spot = ZIT + green = VERT + funeral carriage = BIER rev. Pastime, literally, German for “method of spending time,”
6 Truro – men = OR + (H)URT rev., where would crosswordland be without cockneys? Truro is a bishopric, or see.. I only know it from a fairly famous locomotive called “City of Truro,” which at least identifies Truro as having a cathedral ๐Ÿ™‚
7 advice-boat – *(A CD ABOVE ITS)
8 peridotite – (NUMBE)R + I DO in “small and pretty” = PETITE
11 alexandrines – A + SENI(O)R D(O)N + cut = AXE + L, all rev… tricky! And you need to know that a cipher = 0, in order to “decipher.” Alexandrines are a member of that esoteric fraternity of poetic technicalities along with feet, iambs, strophs and heaven knows what, all required knowledge for the dedicated solver
13 salsa verde – cheap ticket = SAVER in *(DEALS)
14 witgatboom – tracking device = TAG, rev. in intelligence = WIT + report = BOOM. so a “lift and separate,” one of my favourite clueing devices, is needed for “intelligence report.”
17 allantoin – everything = ALL + ANTOIN(E). Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier was one of the most intelligent French scientists of all time. How ironic, and tragic, then that the French Revolution beheaded him. Read his Wiki entry and weep… the mathematician Lagrange said of him “It took them only an instant to cut off his head, but France may not produce another such head in a century.” And he was right.
21 ollav – nothing = O, + (DISRESPECTFU)L + ladies = LAV. A dbe? ๐Ÿ™‚
22 seir – (P)RIES(T) rev.
23 cham – C + HAM

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

3 comments on “Club Monthly 20150 March 2013 – Science Edition”

  1. Nice puzzle and well blogged Jerry

    Agree with your comments about Chambers – what is that silly section all about? And only the French could ice Lavoisier!

  2. About 45 minutes here, but I only got around to solving it this morning! A really good work-out as usual, nothing left to guesswork, just a bit of occasional checking that the word exists after deciphering the wordplay.

    I’m also not sure about the “without” in 26ac. If it’s “verse stripped without”, to me that would lead to ERS rather than VE.

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